Bordeaux and Tours-based FineHeart, a clinical-stage medical device company developing technologies in the cardiovascular space, today announced the completion of a €35 million first closing of its Series C financing round.
This first close brings together investors, including Groupe Pasteur Mutualité and Groupe Etchart, alongside significant participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC)’s EIB fund. Existing investors FH Founders (the founders’ holding company comprising primarily international private investors from healthcare and entrepreneurship), Lurra, IRDI, Groupe Doliam, and NACO have also participated in the round.
The company has also secured €48 million in grants from the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Tech4Cure programme, disbursed in several tranches, in its role as the lead partner in the project to structure the European Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMD) sector.
Arnaud Mascarell, CEO and co-founder of FineHeart, said, “Together with the IPCEI, this funding strengthens our ambition to build disruptive, IP-protected technologies that enable more predictive, personalised, preventive, and participatory medicine—while advancing Europe’s industrial competitiveness and healthcare sovereignty.”
FineHeart was founded in 2010 by Arnaud Mascarell, Dr Stéphane Garrigue, CSO and inventor of FLOWMAKER®, Dr Philippe Ritter, co-inventor of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT), and Philippe Plas, who brings over 25 years of experience in the cardiac rhythm management field.
FineHeart’s core product is FlowMaker®, which it claims is the world’s first fully implantable cardiac output accelerator designed to treat advanced heart failure. The company calls it a hybrid between a pacemaker and a cardiac assist device. It is fully intraventricular and provides physiological support synchronised with the natural heart contractions. It does not require aortic bypass as it respects the heart’s natural blood flow.
“By operating in synergy with native cardiac contractions, the FlowMaker® consumes little energy and does not require any percutaneous connection to external batteries. It is recharged via a transcutaneous energy transfer (TET) system, thereby reducing any risk of infection and significantly improving patients’ quality of life,” FineHeart explained in the press release.
The device is implanted using a minimally invasive beating-heart procedure, commonly performed by cardiac surgeons, with an average duration of approximately 90 minutes.
In total, FineHeart has secured €83 million in financing, combining private capital and non-dilutive European public funding. Last year, in July, the company was designated as the lead partner of the IPCEI Tech4Cure project. This project was approved by the European Commission under EU State aid rules to support innovations in medical devices, including the introduction of novel digital and AI features in medical devices. It is jointly notified by six EU Member States – France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
The company holds an international portfolio of 160 patents in 27 different families. It is financed by a consortium of public and private investors, including the founders’ holding company, FH Founders, as well as Doliam, Etchart Group, and investment funds Groupe Pasteur Mutualité, Lurra, Aquiti Gestion, Galia Gestion, Broadview Ventures, IRDI Capital Investment, M Capital, UI Investment & Verve Capital. FineHeart is supported by the European Union (EIC), Bpifrance and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Centre-Val de Loire regions.
